Personal injury cases are concerned with compensation for injuries received in an accident or incident. However, the cases go through a list of formalities and technicalities. This involves proving a set of things, amongst which, ‘Negligence’ also forms an important part.
What is Negligence? How & Why Is It Proved?
Negligence directly establishes that the other party in the case was ‘at-fault’ and is this liable to pay for the compensation. The insurance company is also liable to pay for the damages, but in cases where the other party is at-fault, the victim can sue them for their compensation.
The concept of Negligence revolves around 4 elements in total. These concepts are rather difficult to comprehend, which in turn is what makes personal injury cases complex.
- Duty of Care:
Duty of care means when a person is obligated to avoid injuring others or putting them in danger. The only questions are, who is responsible for duty of care and how broad is it?
In some scenarios, it is difficult to determine the duty of care because there are no legal guidelines mentioned on how a person should react. In other cases, it can be determined easily.
For example it is important for a person who runs a grocery store to keep check on the floors and not to keep heavy objects on top shelves but there are no proper guidelines when to check floors and how high or low objects should be kept.
- Breach of Duty:
Breach of Duty is another factor of negligence, which means when one fails to fulfil his or her duty of care to prevent others from harm. There are a variety of situations in which duty is breached. If the person does not act responsible then duty is breached.
For example, if the speed limit is mentioned so it comes under the duty of care to follow the speed limit. If an accident occurs because of speeding and someone wounds up injured, then it would be considered as a breach of Duty of Care.
- Causation:
Causation is when someone has breached Duty of Care and despite being at-fault, did nothing to repair the damage. In some scenarios, the person at-fault may claim that the reason is not his or her negligence, but in fact, it was the fault of the victim for not being cautious.
For example if you fall off from stairs because of loose trail, you could sue the building owner for not fixing the loose rail. The owner could however claim that you should have been more cautious while descending the stairs.
- Damages:
Once fault has been established, the point for Damages arrives. Damages cover your economic and non-economic damages. Calculating your damages overall is a tough process, requiring the assistance of an experienced personal injury lawyer such as the Rochester, NY personal injury attorney. You would have to lay down your medical expenses, lost wages, damage to property and other kinds of damages for this.
